The present invention is directed toward a container for a roll of wound material and, more particularly, to such a container that is adapted to facilitate the individual dispensing of a severable sheet of material from a cylindrical roll.
Presently, there are many existing containers for facilitating the dispensing of individual sheets from a cylindrical roll of material housed therein. U.S. Pat. No. 4,274,573, for example, discloses a dispenser for material that is wound into a cylindrical roll. In use, the end walls have circular openings formed therethrough for allowing a roll of material to be inserted therein. Further, there is a slot in one of the side walls for allowing an individual sheet to extend therefrom. A drawback with this dispenser lies in the fact that there are no means provided for closing the cylindrical openings and the slot when the dispenser is not in use. Accordingly, this dispenser would not be useful for housing materials, such as fabric softener sheets, that are subject to drying out when exposed to the air for an extended period of time.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,583,642 and 5,205,454 also disclose dispensers for interconnected sheets of materials that are formed in cylindrical rolls. Once again, these devices have openings that are exposed whether or not the device is in use. Accordingly, if the material to be housed is susceptible to drying, these dispensers would be ineffective.